ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), has denied arresting or detaining the prominent academic and author Professor Okey Ndibe at Lagos airport, contradicting claims made by activist Omoyele Sowore.
The controversy started when Omoyele Sowore, a prominent activist and former presidential candidate, claimed online that intelligence operatives detained Professor Ndibe upon his arrival at Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Monday, June 1, 2026.
However, in a statement released on Tuesday, 2 June 2026, the DSS clarified that operatives did not arrest the academic, explaining instead that he was briefly spoken to as part of a routine process to remove his name from a decade-old security watchlist.
The ‘Watchlist Hygiene’ Campaign
According to the DSS, the current director-general of the service has ordered a comprehensive review of old Watch-List Actions (WLAs), some of which date back to Nigeria’s era of military rule. The agency stated that the audit is designed to clean up its databases and ensure citizens are no longer “unduly embarrassed” by legacy security alerts.
The DSS explained that under international best practices, individuals who have been watchlisted in the past must be interviewed when they transit through borders. This interface allows the service to verify their travel history and ensure their current activities no longer match the reasons they were originally flagged, serving as a precursor to a final delisting.
The intelligence agency revealed that Professor Ndibe had been placed on the national security watchlist since 29 January 2013. Following a recent review, his status was downgraded, and the airport encounter was intended to facilitate the permanent removal of his details from the system.
An Hour-Long ‘Courteous’ Interface
The DSS strongly rejected the characterisation of the encounter as an arrest or detention, maintaining that the interaction was brief and entirely amicable:
- Duration: The agency stated that the interaction lasted “barely an hour.”
- Resolution: After the clearance process was completed, Professor Ndibe was formally cleared and escorted through the airport terminal.
- Conduct: The DSS noted that in his own social media commentary, Professor Ndibe referenced the “professional, courteous and decorous” conduct of the operatives.
The intelligence service added that numerous Nigerians, including media professionals, have recently benefited from this database cleanup. It cited the case of Lanre Arogundade, the Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), whose name was successfully removed from the watchlist in May 2025 after being flagged for over a decade.
Call for Affected Citizens to Step Forward
The DSS stated that its campaign to clean up historical watchlists will be sustained regardless of whether affected individuals make formal complaints.
However, to speed up the process, the agency urged citizens who believe they are still facing legacy travel restrictions or watchlist actions to formally report their cases to the DSS National Headquarters in Abuja.
The management reiterated its commitment to handling border security fairly and ensuring that all operations strictly respect the rule of law and fundamental human rights.
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